While the police are prepared to chase motorists to the end of the earth to prosecute, I gather they are introducing schemes to allow shoplifters to get off scot free if they promise to be good.

Double standards or what.

Nowadays when you say "hey, my taxes pay your wages" the police reply "no, your taxes pay for Iraq, our speed cameras pay my wages".

There is a huge uproar over here about cameras. Most Americans don't like them and don't see any reason to be spying on law abiding citizens.

I can understand security cameras in some places.

They have cameras in Philly that catch you if you run a red light. Woooo-hoooo! What's that murder rate up to in Philly so far this year? 110? 150? More? They're catching those dang yellow-light cheaters, though!

Monica -

Murderers here now receive sentences which are so short as to be worthless and actually insulting to the victims' relatives. David Vance today (above) brings attention to a senior police officer's claim that paedophiles should be treated instead of jailed. Now it is usual here for thieves, burglers, muggers, shoplifters and even violent criminals not to be jailed.

But destroy a Gatso, and it's off to chokey you go. The point is that these cameras are there to show you who's boss and to make you pay for it. Most people here are opposed to them also, but those who are in favour just happen to the politicians, civil servants and senior police officers whose prospects, budgets and politicla ambitions are aided by stamping that boot down on our faces.

Sometimes the only thing that keeps me sane is the delicious thought of one day stringing every last one of them up.

Meanwhile, as Pete Moore posted earlier this week, police officers who speed can be sure they won't be prosecuted in any case.

Pete Moore, I'm not so sure that the majority of Britons oppose speed cameras. I know a lot of people who take the "if it saves just one life" opinion (though one wonders if it even does that) or the "if you follow the law, you've got nothing to be afraid of" opinion. Seems to me there must be a lot of their sort about, else these cameras would never have gone up.

I'm not sure we can count on Gov. Rick Perry, he's done some assinine things lately. I'll give him a call today and nudge him in the right direction.

CL

Yes, I used to live in London too! When you're surrounded by car-fearing, hair gel-using, sandal-wearing, girlie-men, liberal, metrosexual ponces that's the kind of reaction you come across.

Gatsos never needed our permission to go up. No-one was asked. The technology was available, their wallet emptying capacity proved and wallop! Up they go. A poll showing 99% opposition to them would be ignored, you know that.

CL

Everyone MOANs about the transport situation in London including the road humps, width restrictions and useless restrictions. Much like anything else. Of course when youre surrounded by even a handful of useless right wingers nobody can actually be bothered to go out and oppose it or protest because they prefer to sit in and moan.

What was it we said on the a demo last year which included the right? Something about them being too busy or cross to demonstrate. Hence they go home, cross their arms and leave it to rent a mob to get their message across. Same with voting!

Actually, I don't live in London :P

Perhaps I misremember but I seem to remember that when a speed camera went up near me, there was one of those public consultation things, and an orange planning application flyer up.

Of course, it went right ahead because the residents had actually been campaigning for some time to have one. When I asked why one was needed I was told "people go far too fast along that road." It's true that the speed limit is often ignored on the road, but when I asked how many people had been killed on it, I was told that "was not the point".

Charming.

How about speed bumps on residential streets? They'll slow you down real quick.

My dad started the 'X?X Against Road Humps!' campaign in London. Its still going. He hated meddling busybodies of the kind you mention. They were usually Tories though. Still it is possible to hit the roadhumps square on at a decent pace and not take the undercarriage off your car.

Daphne -

Gatso cameras (or the policeman's cashpoint, as they've been dubbed) are found mainly on main roads in and out of towns.

Now, there are residential parts of north London which are like driving in the Alps, they have so many humps. Islington Council put so many in that the ambulance service and fire brigade started kicking up a fuss at how long it was taking for them to get anywhere.

Generally though road humps are only found occasionally in some places. And why would that be? Could it be that it costs money to put them in and ... well, they slow traffic down without fleecing the driver?

In modern Britain government operates to bring glory on politicians and steal our money.

All these so-called safety measures are trade-offs, not solutions. I remember reading something from the emergency services a couple of years back, an estimate of the people that will be killed because of humps etc, and it was very high.

Recently I complained to the local council who'd installed what I considered a dangerous measure to narrow a road. I saw recently that someone has driven into it, like I predicted.

People like to complain about big cars, gas guzzlers, which got popular right about the same time as they started making our roads into assault courses. I used to drive a small car, 1.1. engine, which I thought was practical for living in a city, and it got beaten to s*** by all the road humps, which sent it to the scrap yard earlier than otherwise, so now I've got a bigger car, which is a little more comfortable.

Maybe if people didn't speed like maniacs thereby endangering the lives of others there wouldn't be any excuse for speed cameras.

Hugh,

if what you said was true, then the insurance companies would be taking points on a licence more seriously than they do.

Statistically the most likely to crash are the very slowest and the very fastest, and the safest are around the 80th percentile of average speed, i.e. faster than average.

People in general don't drive like maniacs. In fact British drivers are some of the safest in the world. It may surprise you, but the huge majority of drivers try their best to drive safely.